Robin Wright stars as a US president dealing with the previous President's legacy, Russia, the press, the powerful Shepherd siblings (played by Greg Kinnear and Diane Lane), a fatal chemical plant accident, and more. This is the final season of the US House of Cards.

Did that feel like an ending to you?

How did y'all feel about the various devices the show used to keep Frank Underwood's words in the story -- his voiceover from the past 5 seasons turned into an audio diary whose words we see/hear other characters repeat, but never hear in Spacey's voice?

Whose death was saddest? For me it's either Tom Hammerschmidt's (those last-second preparations) or Jane Davis's (of all the characters, Davis brought the most fascinating mix of authentic warmth and ruthlessness).

In case you missed it: the intro credits sequence for the final episode includes a shot of a statue of President Claire Hale (pregnant).

There was far too much Doug Stamper this season, regardless of his fate.posted by Gary at 9:42 PM on November 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m very disappointed that the writers made such a mess out of this season. I have no words about the final two episodes, calling them incomprehensible is perhaps too kind.posted by wintermind at 6:22 PM on November 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was also disappointed by this season and bewildered by the final two episodes. At first I was excited by the shake-up—it seemed like fertile ground for a revitalized take on an increasingly absurd series. Sadly, some interesting ideas collapsed into incoherence.

By the end, all the continuing dramatic storylines (the Shepherds, Duncan, the nuclear brinksmanship with Petrov, the mole in the White House) just... stopped. Most egregious was Skorsky monologuing “I’ll break this story yet!” and driving off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

It was not convincing that Claire was a popular president after spending a month holed up in the White House and fulfilling every negative prediction about a woman president, having her VP embroiled in a Russia scandal, and purging her entire cabinet (though I did like the all-woman cabinet that resulted).

The murders in the previous seasons were shocking and believable because they were Francis or Doug doing it themselves out of sight of anyone else. For Claire to be able to order murders of her enemies in broad daylight was a change for the worse, and led me to wonder why she didn’t do the same to Doug or the Shepherds.

I was curious about the line spoken by Melody Cruz about how “if you use the word ‘Nazi’ outside the context of World War 2, you’ve lost the argument,” or some such. Is that an argument the show is actually trying to make?

Oh, I also liked how Francis’s audio diary was made up of his fourth wall breaking monologues.

Ugh, there’s a lot more I would say about this, but it doesn’t feel worth the effort.posted by ejs at 11:42 AM on November 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

There was a lot to enjoy about season 6, but I wasn't prepared for how poor the final episode was. That was not a proper ending. Honestly, I lost track of what's what in the show a long time ago. I was mostly enjoying it for the acting, music and mood and what little of it I could still understand.posted by Calzephyr at 9:16 PM on November 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

There were any number of scenes I enjoyed in season 6, but the actual season baffled me.

They had an opportunity to really tell Claire's story this season and instead they spent the entire season haunted by FU. The "we're going to talk about FU all season but never let you see nor hear him, only his words spoken by others" choice was ... sort of interesting? It was like an inverse Bechdel test - many scenes with women talking to each other, but almost all haunted by FU in one way or another. (I'm sure not literally all, but the damn season never gets out from under his shadow.)

And several episodes in we discover - oh, Claire's pregnant. While not entirely outside the realm of possibility that's a damn stretch to say the least. Might as well have had a writer stand in front of the camera screaming "wow, what a plot twist, just look at this plot device!"

Also, I can't really articulate this as well as I would like, but I felt like they had a chance to show how Claire would one-up Frank in every way as president but instead they were basically like "look, a woman president would be just as bad as every misogynist has ever said! Maybe worse!."

Also, I'm pissed that they killed off Tom Hammerschmidt instead of giving him the last laugh. But even knowing he's about to get taken out, he focuses on doing the right thing. I mistook his actions initially as just trying to calm his dog so it wouldn't be shot, too, but realized later he was slipping the USB key onto its collar. (Though, a little of the former, too.)posted by jzb at 5:59 AM on November 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Duncan must have been intended as Frank's secret child (that Claire seduces), right? Or Claire's secret child that Frank seduces? And then they incompetently axed that storyline after Spacey was kicked out?

I've been down on House of Cards for a while, so I'm not surprised I hated this. The show made no sense to me after the first season. The Clintons are invoked a lot as Underwood inspo, but Frank Underwood always gave off a Newt Gingrich/Petyr Baelish vibe to me. Per the show, no one liked him. What was he doing? Accumulating power! How? Betraying people! Breaking stuff! Being unpredictable! For what purpose? Why did he want that power?

...well, probably just to be a dick? At least Gingrich spent the 25 years after he left office filling his pockets. He may be a sociopath, but he's a sociopath with clear motivation. We were always being told that the Underwoods had a cunning plan. The plans....usually didn't work well, and if they did, they would be halted by needless betrayal or abandoned in favor of a new shocking twist.

I don't know if the plot didn't make sense or if I was just too disengaged to follow it, but all the portentousness and dramatic music cues and scenery-chewing really looks ridiculous without Frank occasionally turning to the camera and smarmily undercutting it all. No, I don't miss Kevin Spacey, but the show was built around his character and they were not able to pull off a final season that successfully balanced itself between winking at the audience with "good riddance to that creep" digs and making his death and absence a major theme of the series' denoument.

Robin Wright brought her fucking A-game to this mess, she is amazing, but to save the final season of this show single-handedly she would have needed better scripts.

and literally the only time I was like "ooh, I wonder what happens next!" was the final scene of the last episode.posted by prize bull octorok at 10:33 AM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was curious about the line spoken by Melody Cruz about how “if you use the word ‘Nazi’ outside the context of World War 2, you’ve lost the argument,” or some such. Is that an argument the show is actually trying to make?

It was a slight mangling of Godwin's Law, which Mike Godwin himself has repealed for the Age of Trump.posted by scalefree at 7:42 AM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]